Amid all the hype and concern, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder of the world's leading online e-commerce company Alibaba Jack Ma has emerged for the first time since October last year.

Jack Ma decided to say goodbye to Alibaba in 2018 and was last seen at a conference in October last year criticizing Chinese government regulators, after which he disappeared raising global concerns.

Now, a video of Jack Ma has been uploaded on social media by Chinese state media, where Ma who went from being an English teacher to a business tycoon, is shown speaking to dozens of teachers in rural China for an award ceremony that coincides with the Chinese holiday the Laba Festival.

"We'll meet again after the epidemic is over," Ma said according to Tianmu News, a news site in East China's Zhejiang Province where Alibaba is headquartered. The ceremony is an annual event launched by the Jack Ma Foundation in 2015.

Ma's disappearance from public view since October has sparked speculation about his whereabouts among many western media outlets.

It is pertinent to inform that in October Alibaba financial affiliate Ant Group was scheduled to list on Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges, however, the IPO being called the largest ever was blocked at the last minute by Chinese regulators.